Man stabbed to death in Del Taco lot

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Two men, who were arrested on suspicion of murder in the Saturday stabbing death of a 30-year-old Glendale man, are scheduled to be arraigned today, authorities said.

Avetis Barnasyan, 24, is accused of stabbing Hayk Torosyan in the upper body during a fight in the Del Taco parking lot at 2101 W. Glenoaks Blvd. at about 2:15 a.m. Saturday before fleeing the scene, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

Police found Torosyan, who had tried to drive away after the attack, bleeding in his car from an unknown number of stab wounds about a block away from the fast-food restaurant, Lorenz said. Torosyan was taken to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, where doctors later pronounced him dead.

An autopsy to determine the number of wounds and exact cause of death was scheduled to be completed today, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Torosyan and Barnasyan, also a Glendale resident, were in a feud over a woman that “they both mutually knew,” Lorenz said.

The fight started when Torosyan — who arrived with his friend, 40-year-old North Hollywood resident Brian Herbert — confronted Barnasyan in the parking lot over the woman, Lorenz said. Sometime during the scuffle, Barnasyan retrieved a knife and stabbed Torosyan, he added.

Barnasyan fled the scene but returned to cooperate with authorities, Lorenz said. Herbert, who had stayed at the scene of the attack, was also arrested on suspicion of murder since he had arrived to “engage in a fight or some type of confrontation . . . and as a result, committed a criminal act and then someone died,” Lorenz added.

It was business as usual Monday at the Del Taco. While the restaurant has a 24-hour drive-through, workers at the restaurant said they were not on shift Saturday morning and hadn’t heard about the stabbing.

Barnasyan and Herbert are in police custody and are expected to be arraigned today after detectives present their murder case to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

The incident occurred on the Burbank border — the restaurant is inside Burbank’s jurisdiction, the parking lot in Glendale’s. It is Glendale’s second homicide of the year.

In the first, the district attorney’s office in March filed murder charges against 27-year-old Eagle Rock resident Ana Regina Lim for the death of her 20-month-old baby.

Mikea had been in a coma since March 5, when she was taken to Glendale Memorial Hospital from her grandparents’ home — where she and Lim were staying — with severe head injuries, police said.

Lim was arrested and then released on $100,000 bail for child-endangerment charges, but was arrested a day later on suspicion of murder after Mikea was transferred to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and declared brain-dead. She was later taken off life support and died.

A shooting death in January at Forest Lawn cemetery occurred in Los Angeles’ jurisdiction along the Glendale border.